1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to a sewerless recirculating toilet and human waste storage system; and, more particularly, to a system which provides indefinite storage of human waste in a state of suspended animation without additional treatment and with reusuable flushing fluid stored on top thereof whereby the stored waste may be subsequently treated to recover by-products therefrom, if desired.
2. Description of the Prior Art
For nearly a century, one of the world's most inefficient inventions, the water flushing toilet, has been playing a major role in the ever-increasing pollution of the earth's dwindling supply of pure fresh water. Each and every user, whether served by public sewers or septic tanks, uses an average of 13,000 gallons of drinking quality water each year merely to flush toilets -- pure water that carries off individual annular production of a mere 165 gallons of body waste. In the case of sanitary sewers, this 165 gallons of annual body waste is carried to complex and costly centralized sewage treatment plants. There, depending on the level and type of treatment system, only 40 to 90 percent of the harmful matter that is introduced into otherwise perfectly drinkable water is removed.
The remainder of the contaminants -- including pathogenic viruses not normally eliminated by conventional sewage treatment -- can find their way back into the environment. The result is further degradation of invaluable pure water supplies.
The problem is made even more difficult by some 19,000 gallons of lightly polluted bathing and wash water ("grey" water) that is used yearly. "Grey" water is intermingled with the more heavily contaminated toilet flushing water ("black" water). Thus, the average adult consumes about 32,000 gallons of water annually -- all of it polluted with 165 gallons of body waste.
For the tens of millions served by septic tanks, the results are no different. Heavily contaminated black waters containing harmful pathogenic bacteria mix with grey water. This mixture then seeps into the ground and creates innumerable potential health crises -- to say nothing of costly and often impossibly difficult operational and maintenance problems in many areas of the country.
One response to such situations is recirculating sanitary systems which are well known in the art and have been described and shown in various prior art patents and pending applications. The most significant prior art is set forth in copending applications for patents entitled "Recirculating Toilet" by Donald A. Dotson, et al., Ser. No. 395,936, filed Sept. 10, 1973 now abandoned, which is a continuation of Ser. No. 212,423, filed Dec. 27, 1971, now abandoned, "Recirculating Toilet", by Robert L. Rod et al, Ser. No. 338,200, filed Mar. 5, 1973, now abandoned and "Oil Recovery System" by Norris J. Bishton, Jr., Ser. No. 212,594, filed Dec. 27, 1971, now abandoned, a continuation thereof having been filed as application Ser. No. 449,534 on Mar. 8, 1974, now U.S. Pat. No. 3,934,175 all assigned to assignee of this application, and in patents issued to Obert, et al., U.S. Pat. No. 3,032,776; Rascov, U.S. Pat. No. 3,431,563; and Claunch, U.S. Pat. No. 3,673,614. Recirculating toilets of the various commercially available types have, for the most part, utilized water as the reusable flushing fluid.
It has been deemed a problem of the prior art, when considering the disposal of waste products, that even the limited amounts of water required in a recirculating toilet system consumed substantial amounts of energy in its disposition. Most prior art techniques have required that the water component accompanying human wastes must either be extensively treated to bring it to a quality suitable for release into the environment or that it be incinerated together with the other waste products, thereby returning it to the environment in the form of water vapor.
In the above-identified applications of Rod et al., Dotson, et al., and Bishton, Jr., it was proposed that a recirculating toilet system utilize an oil as the flushing fluid to further limit the water component of the waste materials; however, additional treatment such as addition of chemicals to the waste materials was utilized. The use of an oil had been suggested in the prior art patents to Obert, et al, and Rascov, supra. Obert, et al., had taught the reuse of oil as a flushing liquid after the waste had been ground and transported to a settling tank. Because of the difference in specific gravity, the flushing liquid separated out as an upper layer and was siphoned off through a line for return to the flush tank or the reservoir. In other embodiments, a fuel oil was used and was burned with the waste products as a part of the normal combustion system producing power and heat. Similarly, Rascov taught an incinerating apparatus for immediate disposition of the waste.
Most recently, the patent to Claunch, supra, taught a more or less conventional toilet bowl and tank, which was connected to recirculate a nonaqueous flush medium. A pressurized fluid reservoir stored fluid not otherwise held in the toilet tank and stored it away from the waste material. A special waste compartment was provided which enabled the separation of the flush medium from the waste.
In Claunch, the waste products were admitted at the base of a separating tank and the waste products in the sewage went into immediate separation. The solid waste products were automatically periodically removed to a grinder, then passed to a receiving tank where the waste broke down and was held until delivered to a final disposal area, such as an incinerator. The flush fluid was permitted to rise in the tank through a screen filter above the waste to a storage area from whence fluid was withdrawn through a coalescer filter.
The flushing fluid, meanwhile, was passed to an accumulator which acted in conjunction with a pump to supply flushing fluid on demand to the commode.
The waste products were withdrawn from the separating tank using level and weight sensors which initiated the operation of a macerator-grinder. Other sensors terminated the transfer operation when the level of the flush medium fell below a predetermined desired level.
The Claunch system included a number of floats and sensors, all of which were required to operate in the hostile environment of the waste products. Further, the operation of the system depended upon the proper and orderly operation of the plurality of sensors, switches, and electrically operable valves, and a plurality of protective redundant switches and alarm circuits were necessary for the operation of the system.
Such a system may be referred to as a "total waste disposal system". However, it has always been known that human waste has a considerable value from the ecological standpoint. The total waste disposal system of Claunch is not adapted to the long storage of waste products without such waste products breaking down and causing problems such as odors and generating dangerous methane gas as well as losing economic value. One of the difficulties involved in recycling such waste, however, is the breakdown or degradation thereof over a period of time. Other problems involve the disadvantages generally involved in storing such waste for indefinite periods of time, such as odors, storage capacity, re-use of flushing fluid, etc..
It has been deemed desirable to have a simplified sewerless recirculating system that is more reliable and more easily maintained and does not use drinking water to transport body wastes. It has further been felt desirable to give the user a toilet that is identical in appearance and operation to a water flush toilet in order to gain user acceptance since most users have rejected non-water flush toilets such as incinerator toilets. It has also been felt desirable that some improved toilet fixture should be provided since the flushing fluid is not generally a solvent for the human waste products that must be accommodated by the system. Such a system should also be adapted for use with multiple toilets and a single fluid supply as part of a housing complex or in a large vehicle, such as a ship or large aircraft, and should maintain human waste in a state of suspended animation indefinitely so that such waste could be withdrawn when convenient and subsequently treated for its economic value, if desired.